PURU GUPTA, IAS DEO, TINSUKIA Polling Station data mapping using Google maps and Google docs PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS 2014 PURU GUPTA, IAS DEO, TINSUKIA

INTRODUCTION Tinsukia is the easternmost district of Assam, and comprises of two HPCs partially: 13 Dibrugarh HPC, and 14th Lakhimpur HPC. There are three LACs : Tinsukia, Digboi, and Doomdoma

A website http://www.ls2014tinsukia.org/ What? A website http://www.ls2014tinsukia.org/

Project Objective The primary objective of this online web based Geographical information system is to make the entire data of every polling station in the district accessible to the voter, as also the officials involved in the conduct of elections. The idea is to confer value additions to GPS mapping of PS coordinates, and make it available to stakeholders in a hassle fee manner.

Website accessible from the general district election website containing all election related data, plans, notices, dates and links. http://tinsukia.nic.in/deo/deoindex.html

BASIC UTILITIES

Providing all information regarding all the polling stations with photographs in the election district of Tinsukia at the click of a button. This information is downloadable.

Providing the PER online, with supplementaries, for the electors to view the vote lists of the polling station they are tagged to. This vote list is downloadable.

Depiction of various route maps leading to the polling stations, as an aid to planning, and to voters, along with approximate time required to traverse the distance, by calculation of distance between any two points on the map. 

The website has been kept free from the general election related data pertaining to the election district, and only visual data capable of geographical mapping has been taken up for depiction in a user friendly fashion.

Such a system offers possibilities for enhancement of scope of this enterprise to include publishing of polling results also after counting. More and more polling stations can over time be brought under the ambit of this system which can be expanded without limit. More data per PS can also be added, depending on the need.

The system developers have relied on use of ORACLE, HTML5, JAVA, XML, and CSS3, and have used Google maps and Autocad software for mapping purposes. It is hoped that this system will be used extensively by the voters in turn generating awareness among the one and all about the democratic process.

Moreover, as the internet users are predominantly located in the urban areas, and as voter turn outs in the city and town areas are comparatively low (some of the polling stations of tinsukia town have recorded low polling percentages repeatedly in the last two general elections), it is hoped that this interactive online interface will increase the appeal of the election process among the urban voters.

Thank you